I always come home ravenous after my printmaking class on Monday nights. It must be the stress of having to plan ahead to make those prints. Last week's assignment was to glue leaves and twigs to a plate and print. After crawling around on the ground outside the studio and picking up some things I hoped were not poisonous, I trudged upstairs and tried to glue them to a piece of board and slathered gel medium over everything. Have you ever attempted to glue dried leaves and twigs down flat? All I can say is "don't." After going through all that work, I'm not sure the results were worth it. I think I like the immediacy of monoprinting better - but I'm keeping an open mind. These two were not too bad, but the first two ended up in the trash. All I could think was this: "if this were fabric, I could wash it out." But when I tried to wash out the first ugly print, it didn't work. I wonder why. I am washing some chiffon scarves I batik'd this morning at the studio after dyeing them the other night at home. I ask myself why I do this - it is so much work. At least, the way I do scarves, because there are so many layers. Am I nuts? Anyway, here is one I was working on today. Since I hate pink, I can't imagine how it ended up that color. I think the scarf gods were trying to challenge me. Eeewwwww After dye-painting what seemed like several thousand layers till I was happy, here is what it looks like now. And then another pink one that I batik'd, dyed, discharged, and overdyed. I think it's done. Same deal as in my previous post - pre-Thanksgiving sale $60 -postage included. Silk chiffon - machine wash, hang to dry. And now, it is an ungodly hour so I am going to bed.

bqck qgqin:

Oh; no: Noz ,y keyboqrd is zorking in French qnd everything I zrite zill look very strqnge: It zould be ok if I zere zriting in French; but in English is is very zeird; the letters qre qll in the zrong plqces: Youùll hqve to do your best: re,e,ber zhen ,y lls didnùt zork§: I think this is zorse: Zell; ,qybe not!

It hqs been so long since Iùve blogged thqt I expect they zill be kicking ,e out of this exclusive club: Life hqs been frqught zith qll kinds of roqdblocks thqt hqve kept ,e fro, blogging ) ,ostly becquse you donùt zqnt to heqr the boring sqgqs qnd there hqs not been qnything else since I got bqck fro, sunny Cqliforniq: BORING: ) notice thqt this zord prints just fine on the French keyboqrd:

Todqy I finqlly zent to the studio qnd spent ,ost of the dqy there: It is chilly; rqiny; qnd grey ;in other zords; perfect studio zeqther: But it hqs qlso been such q long ti,e thqt I hqd forgotten hoz exhqusting it is to stqnd qll dqy: Here; in cqse you hqve forgotten ))or never knez )) is zhqt ,y studio design zqll looks like:
Oh, wonderful - the keyboard is back to normal. It seems to have a mind of its own. What a relief.

A friend who is a printmaker asked whether she could use my press today, so she came over this morning and printed from her drypoint plates. Drypoint is intaglio but the lines are etched into the plate with a sharp needle rather than with acid or whatever other substance they are using these days. I forget. I have oil based/water soluble ink which I used several years ago for my own monotypes and still like to use because they clean up with soap & water. But my friend got better results with a wonderful Charbonnel etching ink, which is oil. Interestingly enough, oil inks clean up with vegetable oil (which I didn't have in my studio) so you don't have to use toxic stuff these days if you are a printmaker.

There was some of my leftover ink, so I grabbed a plexi plate, sprayed a piece of printmaking paper with water and ran it through the press to make a monotype. Here it is, hanging on the board and drying. I may go back into it - or I may start putting fabric through the press.

After Harriet left, I spent the afternoon working on my design wall and it felt good beyond description. I hope to get back every day this week for at least a few hours.